5 Probable Reasons Why Doordarshan, AIR Refused To Broadcast Manik Sarkar's I-Day Address

Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar alleged on Wednesday that Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) refused to broadcast his Independence Day address unless he "reshaped" it and termed it as an "undemocratic, autocratic and intolerant step".

The CPI(M) shared an email from Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio, informing the party that a "collective decision" was taken to not broadcast the speech with the content that was provided.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury quickly took to Twitter and said: " Doordarshan is not the private property of the BJP or the RSS. Its refusal to broadcast Tripura CM's speech is undemocratic and illegal.”

He added: If this isn't authoritarianism & undeclared Emergency, what is? This will be fought back by the CPM, people of Tripura and all our citizens.

The party, meanwhile, posted the full text of Sarkar’s speech on Twitter.

Here are five probable reasons why Doordarshan and AIR refused to broadcast the Tripura CM’s Independence Day address: 

“…But today, this spirit of secularism is under attack. Conspiracies and attempts are underway to create an undesirable complexity and divisions in our society; to invade our national consciousness in the name of religion, caste and community, by inciting passions to convert India into a particular religious country and in the name of protecting the cow.”

“The followers of those who were not associated with the Independence movement, rather sabotaged the freedom movement, were servile to the atrocious. plunderer and merciless British, aligned with the anti-national forces having decorated themselves today in different names and colours are striking at the root of unity and integrity of India. Every loyal and patriotic Indian must take the pledge today to remain committed to the ideal of a united India and to counter the attempts towards such destructive conspiracies and attacks.” 

“A large majority of our people are suffering from poverty. These people are the victims of inhuman exploitation. They are being deprived of food, shelter, clothing, education, health care and security of job for assured income. This is contrary to the aims and objectives of our Independence struggle. Our current national policies are squarely responsible for this state of affairs. Such anti-people policies shall have to be reversed.” 

In contrast to the anti-people policies of the Government at the Centre, the State Government of Tripura despite its limitations has been pursuing policies for the welfare of people in all walks of life with a special focus on the downtrodden and to advance forward with their cooperation. This is a totally different and an alternative path. This path has been able to not only attract the people of Tripura but also elicit a positive response of the downtrodden people of our country....” 

“…This is not being tolerated by the reactionary forces here in Tripura. Hence, conspiracies are being hatched up one after another by the enemies of the people to disturb peace, fraternity and integrity of the State. And at the same time attempts are on to disrupt the realm of developmental works. We need to counter all these unholy designs and isolate the reactionary forces.”

There was no immediate reaction from the Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio.